


run as the rains come

by weatheredlaw



Series: and it all adds up [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 10:57:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11530776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: There's protocol for this, for sure, but that's always when it's not the truth. May Parker tells Tony that Peter might be his kid -- he listens.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i started working on a version of this after the first amazing spider-man movie came out, so it's...a pretty old idea in terms of the internet. i had to scrap it just because it didn't work as it was all pre-civil war and stuff. also i obviously haven't seen thor: ragnarok, so bruce being here is really just me being self-indulgent. i missed the marvel sandbox. i hope you enjoy.

There's an almost brutal difference between the little boy who came to live with her and the one standing in front of her who is trying negotiate his way out of going to urgent care.

“Your wrist is broken.”

“It's _not_ ,” Peter says, wincing when he tries to lift up the half-gallon of milk from the fridge. “ _Dammit!_ ”

“We're going. Get out of the suit and into something normal. You need to see someone.”

Peter breathes, eyes screwed shut before he opens them and nods, limping into his bedroom to change.

To her credit, May waits until the door is shut before she dry heaves into the sink.

 

* * *

 

She isn't _mad_ that he didn't tell her. It's...a secret to end all secrets, sort of. And she can understand why he wouldn't. She was fifteen once, too. What she's mad about is sort of beyond the both of them. She's mad at this culture of heroes, she's mad at whatever seems to keep bringing them back –

She's mad at Tony Stark, and that's the one part that's really hard to wrap her brain around. Tony Stark was sitting in her living room, and she was...charmed, of course. She was enraptured and amazing and wowed and _starstruck_ – and then her nephew was gone in a whirlwind and there was something in Berlin and every time she thinks that she _watched that happen and Peter was there_ –

“May?”

She's breathing in shallow gasps into the metal basin of the sink, and she feels Peter's hand – gentle, careful, soft, sweet – on her shoulder. “Hey, I promise it's just a sprain.”

May turns to him, in his jeans and t-shirt, the ice pack on his wrist. She nods. “Alright. I'll wrap it and get you some Tylenol. You want pancakes?”

“Sure.” He pauses. “I...heal a little faster, you know.”

“I didn't know.”

“Well, yeah, I mean–”

“Maybe I'll just order takeout.”

He swallows. “Okay.”

 

* * *

 

_May –_

_This is going to sound crazy, I know it. But I've left a few clues here. It's hard to say out loud, and honestly, I never wanted to put you and Ben in this position, but – there's something I need you to know, and you're both clever enough to solve this one. I don't want anyone besides the two of you to figure it out, so if you do, or if you decide not to follow up on it, just burn this stuff, okay? _

_And, whatever you do, don't tell Peter._

_I love you. I miss you, wherever I am._

_Mary_

 

* * *

 

What Mary Parker had left behind had confused May for a while. It'd taken her some time to really look at it, and back then, she and Ben were just trying to make ends meet, and trying to make sure no one took Peter away. It was all touch and go until he was maybe eight or nine, and Ben finally finished law school, and they could actually make a living.

There were just a few clues – _Wednesday, 8 PM, Saratoga Room_. A room key, a cocktail napkin with a phone number scrawled across it, a pamphlet for a conference, one where Mary had given a keynote when she and Ben's brother Richard were working on some crazy project or another.

On that Wednesday of the conference, at 8 PM, Tony Stark had given a keynote speech of his own for the electrical engineering portion of the conference.

May hadn't really quite understood what it meant at the time. Not until the last part of it fell into the floor as she was leafing through it all again, probably a year before Ben died.

_If Peter needs anything, find his father._

May held the conference pamphlet and the note in her hands, looked between the two, and felt... _lost._

 

* * *

 

Stark moves the Avengers upstate. It's not a long drive, and she can do it this weekend, while Peter is out of town with the decathlon team til Sunday night. So she packs some snacks, she packs all of Mary's clues, and she starts driving. When she finally get there, she has to haggle with a guard for twenty minutes before he agrees to call Stark and ask if he happens to know a May Parker. Thirty seconds later, she's being escorted into the building.

It's another thirty minutes before Tony shows up, after she's been fed and watered, essentially. He's followed by a tall woman in heels and a business casual black dress who is having a conversation on the phone in broken French. May stands abruptly to meet them.

“Aunt _May_ , don't get so formal on us.”

“Don't call her aunt,” the woman says, settling onto a sofa. May recognizes Pepper Potts now – she was the woman Stark proposed to at the press conference a few months back, before May found out about Peter.

“Can you _believe_ she's Parker's aunt?”

“Tony.”

“What? I'm assuming she gets it all the time.” He looks at her. “I'm also assuming you know about Peter, if you're all the way up here.”

“ _Tony._ ”

“It's been a few months,” May says. She twists her fingers in her lap. “I...I don't know why I came all the way up here. I guess I could have just...asked Peter for your number.”

“But Peter doesn't know you're here,” Tony says.

“No. I...this was my decision. There's something I need to discuss with you. It's sensitive, and I'm not sure you're fiance should really...be here.” She looks apologetically at Pepper.

“She can be here.”

May sighs. “Well. It's your choice, I guess.” She clears her throat. “You know, I...thought about coming here and just slapping you. I thought I might be bold enough to do it. You took my nephew to Berlin, you put him in an incredibly _dangerous_ situation, you gave him that _suit_ –” And now the anger is coming back, full bloom, and she feels her cheeks grow hot and her hands start to shake. “He was _there_ , he was on that ferry, he was on that _beach_ when your plane crashed.” May looks up. “I can't believe that every single part of this comes back to you, and I don't have the guts to lay a single hand on you.”

“One free slap,” Tony offers sheepishly. To his credit, he looks...ashamed. “I knew it wasn't the best choice, but I needed your nephew, and he...rose to the challenge.”

“Of course he did,” May snaps. “He's a damn _Parker_. They're always getting themselves in over their heads and doing things everyone else says they shouldn't do.” Pepper hands her a tissue. “Sorry. Thank you.”

“So why are you here?” Tony asks. “You didn't drive up from Queens just to give me a piece or you mind, or whatever.” He leans forward. “What's up, May?”

She looks at him. “I know you know who Peter's parents are.”

Tony's expression falters for a moment before he nods. “I do. Brilliant scientists. We're worse off in the world without them.”

“We are. For a lot of reasons.” She reaches into her purse and pulls out the gallon ziploc where she'd shoved all of Mary's clues. “Do you remember Mary most of all?” She pulls out a photo. Peter's almost the spitting image of her, save a few odd traits here and there. “She gave a key note, almost sixteen years ago, at a conference in Pennsylvania.” May pulls out the napkin. “I think she met you there.”

Across from her on the couch, Potts visibly stiffens, and May wonders at which point in the conversation she expected this to happen. There's no way she's the first one to come here, to try and tell Tony Stark in front of the woman he's engaged to that her nephew is probably Tony's –

“Green dress, lemondrop martini,” Tony says quietly. “Mary Fitzgerald was a brilliant geneticist. I listened to her speech.” He looks at May. “Why are you here?”

“She told me that if Peter needed something, I should find you. I suppose I'm sort of doing things in reverse, but...” She closes her eyes. “I think Peter might be your son.”

Pepper reaches for the cocktail napkin. “What makes you certain?”

“Nothing,” May confesses. “I said _think_. I can't be sure. I only...Peter was born nine months after this conference. Why would Mary ask me to find you, just for Peter's sake? She never mentioned you to us, she never said anything about you, that she even knew you. I can't imagine she'd make this up, she was honest, she was _decent._ ”

“I don't doubt that,” Tony says quietly. “But this isn't something I can just...take at face value.”

“Then test it.” May gathers her things. “I apologize for disrupting your day, and if I made you uncomfortable,” she says, looking at Pepper. “But Peter's going through a lot right now. He's...he's been stronger than I ever asked him to be, especially after we lost Ben. I don't think he ever quite processed it. And I think he's...well he really admires you, Mr. Stark.”

“I asked him not to.”

May laughs. “Is Peter your first teenager?”

“Point taken.”

She shakes her head. “You shouldn't sell yourself too short, Mr. Stark. I'm sure there's something to admire underneath all that armor.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

She had been _beautiful_ , and Tony had been sober for the first time all weekend. She was wearing a green dress, sitting at the bar with a lemondrop martini. He knew that she and Richard Parker were...some kind of an item, but she didn't act exclusive, and Tony acted as much a gentleman as he could have, sixteen years ago.

And it's true, when he looks at Peter, he sees Mary Parker.

But when he looks at Peter, he doesn't see much of himself. Good thing? He's been thinking that.

What is the question then? There are several.

Does he believe May Parker?

Does he think Peter is his son?

Does he _want to know_ if Peter is his son?

“You do,” Pepper assures him. He keeps expecting her to be...angry. He's not sure why. She's sitting across from him at the breakfast table, the day after May's visit, sipping her tea and going over her schedule. “You have the equipment.”

“I need his DNA.”

“You have it already.”

“Yeah, but I need to get his...permission.”

“Why?” She looks at him now. “To stall? Or because this part is different.”

“...Both.”

“So you believe her.”

Tony scrubs his face with his hands. “I'm entertaining the thought of entertaining the possibility.”

“Don't be dense about it,” Pepper says, before she gets up and kisses his forehead. “And don't forget about our visitor.”

“Shit. Is he still sleeping?”

“He is.” Pepper grabs her phone and planner. “Have you told Natasha?”

“She out of range,” Tony murmurs.

“Well, I'm sure she'd appreciate something.”

“Sure,” he says. “I'll...get right on it.”

 

* * *

 

Bruce Banner is making himself at home in Tony's basement lab, shuffling around in slippers and old concert t-shirts and jeans. It was good to see him, good to have him back in the space, even if he was...rather quiet.

Tony sends Peter a drone and a note asking for a blood sample before he heads downstairs.

“Hey, big guy.”

Bruce looks up, hunched over a bowl of cheerios and looking through some data. “Hey.”

“Feeling alright?”

“Sure.”

“Cool, cool.” Tony sniffs. “Listen. I know–”

“I don't want to talk about...any of that. Right now.”

“...Okay.”

“Maybe later. Maybe...just maybe. I guess.”

“I can do that.” He clears his throat. “I'm...wondering if you could run a test for me.”

“What kind of test?”

“Just a basic marker test. A comparison. On Spider-Man.”

Bruce chokes on his cheerios for a minute before looking right at him. “Seriously?”

“You've heard of him, right?”

“I thought he was a joke. I thought he was your joke, actually.”

“He's not,” Tony says, almost defensively. “Technically he's...my responsibility. I gave him his suit.”

“Recruited him to fight Cap.”

“Hey, if you can get out of talking about all your abandonment bullshit, then I don't have to talk about my decision to recruit a fifteen year old to my team, okay?”

“Alright, alright.” Bruce goes back to his breakfast. “So what's up?”

“Just want to run some tests.”

“You'll tell me later then?”

“Sure.” Tony turns to head out of the lab. “It's good to have you here, you know. I missed my lab partner.”

 

* * *

 

The drone is back that evening, and Tony sends the sample, along with one of his own, down to Bruce for comparison.

He considers what to do in the days he'll need to wait for the results, but Bruce has it done in a few hours, which Tony should have known, considering Banner's core competency level at this sort of thing.

“Spider-Man's got an interesting protein structure happening here.”

“It's something.”

“I'd like to keep looking at it, if I can.”

“Sure, sure.” Tony swallows. “What'd your comparison show?”

“That he's fifty-percent yours.” Bruce looks at him. “Come on, you think I didn't know?”

“I assumed you did.”

“You could have just told me.” Bruce leans back in his chair. “But I get it. It's a sensitive subject. Not every day you find out you're a dad.”

“I'm not. He's just...sort of mine.”

“Pepper said you were mentoring him.”

“That's a strong word,” Tony says, and looks at the results himself. “Is there a parenting book for this? _Surprise, you're a father: what to do sixteen years too late?_ ”

“No.” Then: “Who's his mother?”

“Mary Parker. Richard Parker's wife. Do you–”

“I do.” Bruce's face falls. “That's...sad. Poor kid.”

“He does alright. You should meet his aunt, if you and Romanov aren't going to–”

“Here's your results,” Bruce says, and spins his chair toward another table. Walls up, conversation finished.

Tony goes back upstairs.

 

* * *

 

“ _Maybe we should come to you._ ”

“That's not a bad idea. He could play with Dr. Banner in the lab, might soften the blow.”

“ _Dr. Banner, as in...as in the **Hulk** , Dr. Banner?_”

“The only one.”

He hears May sigh on the other end, and it's the same one Pepper gives him sometimes, when she just...can't fucking _believe_ this shit. “ _Alright. We'll make a trip this weekend._ ”

“Perfect. I'll throw some burgers on the grill.”

 

* * *

 

It's...easier than Tony thought, telling Peter the truth. Just a little, _we did a DNA test and it turns out I'm your biological father._ Really simple, in its execution.

Dealing with the aftermath is...harder.

“ _I can't believe you knew this and you never told me!_ ”

“Peter, honey, I didn't really know, I didn't have anything to–”

“What the hell does it even _mean_?” Peter demands. “I've been...I've been _alone_ and now there's just–”

“You haven't been alone,” Tony says. “You've had your Aunt.”

“ _Don't_.” Peter points at him. “Don't just...you've got no _right_ to—” He groans, pulling on his hair and pacing through the living room. “I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't _understand–”_

“We can give you some space–” But Peter is already out of the room, down a hall and far away from them. May puts her face in her hands. “This was a mistake.”

“Maybe,” Tony agrees. He puts a tentative hand on her shoulder. “I'm...sorry, for what it's worth.”

“It's fine.” She sniffs, wiping her cheeks with her sweater. “It's...it's fine.”

Pepper comes into the room, offers to make May a cup of tea, maybe give her a place to lie down for a while. She accepts, asks Tony to find Peter, and disappears.

Tony waits, just a bit. He's been in that place, the one where being spoken to or _touched_ by anyone is enough to push you right over the edge. He gives Peter a good thirty minutes before he goes looking for him, spends another ten just trying to find him before he gets a little message from Banner.

 **b:** he's down here

 

* * *

  
“–in chem lab, honestly. It's pretty easy to put together.”

“It's strong. You said it dissolves in a couple hours?”

“Yeah, it's not bad.”

“That's impressive. Tony said you were clever.” Bruce looks up. “He's a cool kid.”

“He's alright.” Tony leans against the door frame. “You cool?”

Peter shrugs. “I'm okay.”

Bruce sighs and gets up. “I think I'll go for a walk.”

“Be sure to come back.”

“No promises,” he says, and nudges Tony with his elbow on his way out.

Tony steps in. “Listen, Peter–”

“Don't...tell me you're sorry. Okay?” He toys with the end of a test tube. “It's not your fault.”

“Well, it's a little my fault. It's not my fault I didn't know, but even that's pushing it a little. There's always a way to find out. And to be fair, I...followed your parents' careers pretty close. I knew about you.”

“Yeah?”

“A little here and there. Saw an article about you winning a science fair in a journal once, talked about how much like your father you were.” Tony sits in a chair. “He's still your dad, you know.”

“I know.”

“I'm not going to try and take his place. But I'm...I _am_ going to try and do better by you than I have.”

“I think you've done okay.”

Tony raises a brow. “Yeah that suit thing was genius. Honestly? Wasn't expecting that from me. Of _all_ people. Very much something my old man would have done.”

“Guess we all turn into our parents eventually.”

Tony looks at him, at his _kid_ , looking right at home among all this equipment and all this tech and all this... _everything._ And he thinks about how much like Mary Parker he looks, and how he even looks like Richard Parker from a certain angle. Pair of nerdy glasses, maybe. A white coat. A pretty girl on his arm and a grant in his back pocket.

And then he thinks about Peter Parker, the Spider-Man. The hero with the high tech suit and that burning, undying need to constantly prove yourself, even to people who don't seem to appreciate you. Tony wonders, for a minute, when he started turning out a bit like Steve.

“Yeah,” he says. “Guess we do.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @ weatheredlaw


End file.
